September 23, 2004

not writing a letter

Writing a letter, you start at the top of the page with your address, then: Dear SoAndSo, then progress down the page, to the conclusion and: yours sincerely… Then it’s all envelopes and stamps.

Strangely enough, painting and drawing are not like that.

You don’t start at the top and work down until it’s finished, well I don't anyway.

Painting and drawing are more like developing a photograph. If you haven’t done it, the old fashioned way, with a developing tray and, well, developer, you must have seen it in the movies. The paper slips under the clear fluid, the tray is rocked gently to wash the chemicals over the surface of the paper. Then, slowly, in the dim red light, an image begins to appear; faint at first, but getting stronger. But, and here’s the key to the analogy, not at the top and getting stronger as it goes down but: all over. The whole image comes up together.

That’s what you are aiming for in a drawing or painting, bring your image out of the paper all at once, from faint marks to full contrast, without the chemicals and dim red light, obviously, but then again whatever does it for you.

September 21, 2004

the new look

Well, as you can see I've had the decorators in. This is largely due to a huge update in the dark and dangerous section of movabletype's computer by my friend Jonathan, who kindly hosts these Unstuck Diaries and generally knows about this sort of thing.

September 16, 2004

the what it is

I’ve written at length, and thought for longer, on what it is I feel about how I paint.

I’ve talked about how I like brush strokes and blots and drips and gloopy paint. What I don’t like is colouring in. Drawing a shape on the panel and filling in the spaces with different colours. Sometimes it has to be done for the good of the painting, but it’s flat, mind-numbing, stuff that only adds a compositional element to the picture.

What I am interested in is the energy of the picture, the energy of the painting, the actual painting. Painting energetically. Painting with feeling, both feeling for the subject and feeling for the paint. So I enjoy both; I enjoy the form and I enjoy the act of applying the paint.

It ain’t easy, applying the paint, it takes time and effort to maintain the energy, but that is when the painting works. It is also why I can’t paint all day every day - I get exhausted.

September 10, 2004

angry day

Angry day, but contained, then let loose on some panels, more panels than was sensible, it has to be said. Tried to eat the whole elephant in fact. Got a lot of paint on mind you, interesting results too, quite unstuck; if push comes to shove.

Trouble at t’ studio

With apologies to the good people of Yorkshire, much maligned by comics everywhere.

It’s tricky stuff this art business. Should get myself affiliated to the Incorporated Union of Industrial Oil Painters then I’d be able to go down the club of a Friday night and drown my sorrows with fellow artists...

And then there're the brushes

So, painting’s hard, difficult, yes, with all its attendant angst, both subjective and objective. But, hell, there’s the brushes.

Holding upwards of seven brushes in one hand, without one touching another, and knowing what particular tone or tint of colour is currently gracing the outer bristles of each brush. Let alone knowing what tone or tint is under the above.

September 09, 2004

Light on dark, fat on lean

Put down some dark colours in the background, then hit the flake white and fill almost, but not quite, up to the edges. Leave a little bit dark, a little bit of darkness at the edge. Leave a little fight in the line, a bit of dark breaking into the light and vice versa. Make the line work. Night and day.

And when schlurping* the flake white over the dark make sure the dark is a thin coat not a thick coat, so the light can be thick and powerful. This way round and the paint doesn’t crack as it dries, thick coats of paint clearly taking longer to dry than thin coats of paint. So you don’t need to watch it; dry - the paint, that is.

You can instead get on with giving the whole thing a good coat of looking at.

*schlurp v. arch. technical term for the application, with great gusto, of large schcloops* of paint.
*schcloop n. arch. term for [enough, Ed.]